Cyparissus . . . and the Stag.
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10 November 2012, we'll be doing Euripides' Iphigenia in Aulis, in Greek, at ARTSLAB on Adams Ave., just down the block from L'Estat's! There will be dual language scripts provided, and FREE LAMB KEBOB FEAST! (For 35, anyways!) Come and enjoy a real old-fashioned tragedy: Agamemnon's poor little daughter Iphigenia has to be sacrificed for the good of the Greek expedition to Troy.....
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September 9 2012: I have pre-ordered HOBBITUS ILLE (the Latin Hobbit) Very small excerpts will soon be up!
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Seneca's Phaedra at CCA/SS on 28 April, 10:30am
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Cyparissus was a rather effeminate boy who had a pet stag that he dearly loved. The stag's great horns have always marked it as a masculine symbol, but Cyparissus was able to tame it and decorate it with ribbons, fancy harness, locket, etc. They were so close that he could even ride on its back! This first, delicate, tentative union of extreme effeminacy and extreme masculinity could not last: Apollo shot the stag "by accident," and killed it. Cyparissus wept his heart out over the stag, and in time the poor boy perished, becoming in his death the first Cypress tree. The solitary columnar forms of Cypress trees are even now seen around Italian farmhouses, planted as memorials to dead sons. The purpose of this audio-recording site, with all its carefully impersonalized personal emotion, married (like the vine and the elm!) to strict classical form, is to share classical ideas about the development of appropriate masculine and feminine identities. In particular, it is offered to California students Larry King, (murdered for his effeminacy) and Brandon McInerney (now on trial for the murder.) Perhaps the sad fates of these two teenagers could remind us of the reality of the struggles of adolescence, as California grapples with the implications of Senate Bill 48, the "Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act." In hopes of better outcomes for future generations . . . .
For the story of Cyparissus, see Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 107. Here's the link:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+10.100&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028
Seneca's Phaedra at CCA/SS on 28 April, 10:30am
---NEWS---
Cyparissus was a rather effeminate boy who had a pet stag that he dearly loved. The stag's great horns have always marked it as a masculine symbol, but Cyparissus was able to tame it and decorate it with ribbons, fancy harness, locket, etc. They were so close that he could even ride on its back! This first, delicate, tentative union of extreme effeminacy and extreme masculinity could not last: Apollo shot the stag "by accident," and killed it. Cyparissus wept his heart out over the stag, and in time the poor boy perished, becoming in his death the first Cypress tree. The solitary columnar forms of Cypress trees are even now seen around Italian farmhouses, planted as memorials to dead sons. The purpose of this audio-recording site, with all its carefully impersonalized personal emotion, married (like the vine and the elm!) to strict classical form, is to share classical ideas about the development of appropriate masculine and feminine identities. In particular, it is offered to California students Larry King, (murdered for his effeminacy) and Brandon McInerney (now on trial for the murder.) Perhaps the sad fates of these two teenagers could remind us of the reality of the struggles of adolescence, as California grapples with the implications of Senate Bill 48, the "Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act." In hopes of better outcomes for future generations . . . .
For the story of Cyparissus, see Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 107. Here's the link:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+10.100&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028